


Joyride

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M, desert monsters and toxic minerals but like. in a romantic way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 09:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22713838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: “Is this a date?”His words made the Doctor pause to look up at him, his eyes wide and curious. “Would you like it to be?”The Doctor and Jamie have a moment's rest during a rescue mission.
Relationships: Second Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Joyride

**Author's Note:**

> on [tumblr](https://the--highlanders.tumblr.com/post/190822441986/joyride).

The sand rippled and churned behind them, tossing to and fro with the movement of some great, unseen beast. Its motion could almost have been some far-off desert mirage but for the dull roaring that accompanied it. The Doctor hunched further over the handlebars of their speeder, urging it on, but the ground was growing ever more unsteady, beginning to fall away beneath them. Their hover-jet wheels shuddered as they dipped up and down, and the Doctor swerved to one side just as something burst up at them. Sand filled the air, raining down over them and making the speeder’s engine screech in protest. Jamie squinted up through his thick goggles, but could only catch a glimpse of something impossibly large sailing over them in a smooth arc, its many twitching legs barely visible through the yellow haze.

A deafening crunch filled the air as the sand-snake slammed back into the earth, sending more sand spraying out over them as it thrashed around to bury itself. The speeder skidded around, almost toppling over onto its side as it span out of control, and Jamie tightened his grip on the Doctor’s waist, burying his face in his shoulder. The goggles dug into his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, but he did not raise his head, instead focusing on swallowing his discomfort as the Doctor pushed the speeder onwards. The shifting sand flanked them on both sides now, and he threaded the needle of the path between them, his knuckles white and his muscles tensed. When Jamie dared to raise his head, he saw that they were heading towards a cluster of buildings, ruined and half-buried in the sand. He cried out, realising they were driving straight towards a broken wall, but the Doctor did not even flinch, sending the speeder up and over the slope of it. Squeezing his eyes shut, Jamie braced himself to be thrown into the air, but the Doctor came to a screeching, jerking halt, and instead they tumbled forwards onto the building’s flat roof.

The pair of sand-snakes circled the crumbling settlement for a moment, whipping themselves around and shrieking out their displeasure at having lost their prey, but they quickly fell quiet, burying themselves more deeply beneath the sand. Jamie let out a long, heavy sigh of relief, stretching out on the rooftop and letting its warm surface soothe his aching shoulders. “Are we safe here?”

The Doctor had already leapt to his feet to busy himself with examining the speeder’s wheels. “Is anything broken?”

Lifting the flap of the bag that hung at his side, Jamie checked over each of the vials clinking around inside. “Doesnae look like it.”

“Good, good. I can only hope there’ll be enough for the whole village.”

“Ye didnae say whether or not we’re safe here.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t worry about us. I don’t think the sand-snakes can get past the perimeter.”

“Perimeter?” Heaving himself upright, Jamie pushed his goggles onto his forehead to frown at the Doctor. “But there’s no walls or anythin’.” He squinted out at the sand, trying to see what might be holding off the beasts. The ground around the buildings seemed to shimmer unnaturally, glinting white and blue and purple in the fierce noon sun, but he shook his head. Surely it could be no more than the light reflecting off the sand, he told himself. “Dinnae tell me it’s magic.”

“Not quite. There’s – ah – a mineral that the sand-snakes aren’t particularly fond of. I suspect you’ve already seen it.”

Dread coiled itself in Jamie’s chest, settling itself around his lungs, and he pressed his arm over his mouth to muffle his breathing in his sleeve. “It’s no’ that stuff that’s been poisoning the villagers, is it?”

“Well – I hadn’t planned on mentioning that part.”

“ _Doctor_!”

“It’s quite alright,” the Doctor said hastily. “It would take years of exposure for it to affect us. And besides, we’ve already synthesised the medicine.” Jamie relaxed a little, though he did not take his arm away from his face. “But we oughtn’t linger here too long, all the same. Now, do you remember what you have to do?”

“Aye, I think so.” Crouching beside the speeder as the Doctor turned it onto its side, Jamie tugged at a box on its belly. It clung on stubbornly for a moment, then released itself, sending him all but tumbling over backwards. A handful of metal tubes clattered over the roof, and Jamie scrambled to pick them up. “I’ve got tae give ye these batteries, an’ then put in the new ones when you’ve fixed them.” He prodded at one of the batteries, squishing the coil wrapped around it.

“Quite right.” The Doctor whisked the battery out of his hand, shoving it into his own pocket. “And do remember to check what way around you put them in.”

“Aye, aye, I’ve got it.” Jamie picked up a handful of sand and ran it idly through his fingers, watching the Doctor pick and tap away at a fresh battery. He pried off the plastic covering with his fingernails, hunched over it like some great, ungainly bird cracking into a nut. “Hey, Doctor?”

“Mm?” The Doctor did not look up, passing him the battery and turning to work away at another one. “Is there a problem?”

“I – och – it’s nothing.” The bright sunlight reflected unpleasantly off the battery box, and Jamie had to squint at its base for a long moment, trying to match the ends of the battery with the picture etched into its slot. It snapped cleanly into place when he pushed it in, and he grinned to himself, the success filling him with confidence. “But -”

“Mm?”

He faltered, half-distracted by the thoughtful little sound the Doctor had made, half-struggling to keep his nerve. “Is this a date?”

His words made the Doctor pause to look up at him, his eyes wide and curious. “Would you like it to be?”

Jamie huffed out a breath of disbelieving laughter. “Would I like – of course I would! We’ve been – we’ve been _somethin’_ for ages now, you’ve been promisin’ me a date for weeks. I’ve just been waitin’ for ye tae land in the right place.”

The Doctor gave a pointed glance around at the unnaturally-glinting ground below them, the endless desert, the occasional movements in the sand that marked where the sand-snakes lay. “Is this the right place?”

Fighting a grin, Jamie made a show of considering their situation. “I’d say so. By your standards, anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothin’, nothin’,” Jamie said hastily. “Just that in my day, people normally settled for goin’ tae a dance, or maybe takin’ a walk together. No’ being chased by alien beasties while takin’ medicine tae a sick village.” The Doctor was looking a little embarrassed, and Jamie nudged at his arm, grinning. “But I wouldnae have it – I wouldnae have _ye_ any other way.”

“Oh!” The embarrassment on the Doctor’s face quickly turned to bashfulness, and Jamie’s own cheeks were beginning to feel warm. “Well, I’m – I’m quite glad you think so, Jamie.” He tossed another battery over, but both of them fumbled with it, and it clattered away across the roof. “Oh dear.”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it.” Jamie hurried over to fetch it, grateful for the excuse to avoid meeting the Doctor’s eyes. The spring on the new battery was slightly too stiff for its slot, and he had to jam it in tightly, yelping and nursing his stinging finger when it shocked him. “Ouch!”

“Gently.” Busying himself with shoving the small pile of plastic casing into his pocket, the Doctor kept his own face carefully hidden. “I – I’d hoped that this would be a quiet day out, you know. Ah – to ease us into – things.”

“An’ instead ye landed us a thousand years too early an’ got us chased by these sand-beasties.” Jamie grinned to himself. “Ye dinnae do things by halves, do ye?”

A faint orange tinge was spreading across the Doctor’s face. “Well – I’ll try again next time.”

“Ye don’t need to.” Jamie leant forwards a little way, then back again, searching the Doctor’s expression carefully for some sign of approval. After a moment’s hesitation, he pushed himself over to kiss him briefly, almost shyly. “It wouldnae really be _us_ if things were too quiet, would it?”

“Mm.” Slowly, reluctantly, the Doctor opened his eyes again. “I suppose you’re right. Here. We should only need one more for now.” He sounded a little breathless, and when he handed Jamie another battery, his hands were not entirely steady. “Better to save the rest for the journey back, I think – just in case.”

Pushing the battery into place, Jamie slotted the box neatly beneath the speeder again. When he was sure it was secure, he breathed out a long sigh of relief, flopping backwards onto the roof. “Can’t we just rest here for a wee while?”

“I, ah – don’t think that’s a good idea. We shouldn’t linger on the infected ground for too long.”

“Didn’t ye say it would take years tae affect us?”

“Well, yes – but one can never be too careful. And the villagers will be waiting for us.” The Doctor got to his feet, brushing sand off himself and turning the speeder upright. “What does the timer on the medicine say?”

Dragging the bag closer to himself, Jamie pushed aside the flap to peer at the blocky, glowing numbers on the vials inside. “About two hours. ‘Spose we’d better get goin’.” He sat up, shoving the bag over his shoulders and snapping his goggles back over his eyes. As he settled himself on the speeder, he tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. “It’s been a good date, ye know.”

“It’s not quite over yet,” the Doctor pointed out. The speeder growled at his touch, trembling as if with eagerness to be going. “I don’t suppose the sand-snakes will have given up so easily.”

He urged the speeder forwards, crashing out of the protective barrier and down onto the ground below in a spray of sand and a whirring of distressed machinery. Twin screeches rumbled out from the ground below, and the sand-snakes burst up to hang over them, their legs waving and twitching almost unnaturally. They seemed to watch the speeder for a moment, tracking its stuttering movement before diving past each other and burrowing back into the sand. The Doctor pressed the speeder onwards, zigzagging along the calmer ground between their two pursuers, and all Jamie could do was cling to him desperately, feeling as if he were about to be thrown off at any moment.

They raced off ahead of the beasts, the ruined town growing ever smaller behind them, the desert echoing with their cries of delight.


End file.
